Organized crime poses a major threat to national and international security. NSDC Secretary Yevhen Marchuk and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Rushailo, State Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council Gennady Neviglas, and Marek Siewec, State Secretary and Chief of the Polish National Security Bureau, speaking at a press conference after their meeting in Kharkiv, pointed to an alarming trend: organized crime is becoming international and the scope of crimes is expanding, including drugs, trafficking women, and illegal migration. NSDC Secretary Yevhen Marchuk introduced the notion of a terrorist International that became instantly popular with the media.
The topics discussed included regional and international security, the struggle against international terrorism, illegal migration, shadow business, safety of international carriages and pipelines. Actually, it was probably the first attempt by countries having different foreign political priorities to work out an effective contemporary architecture for European security and cooperation.
One of the principal conclusions made during the meeting was that threats to national security have shifted primarily from the military sphere to that of law enforcement. In the first place, “the status of national borders must remain one of the priorities in bilateral relationships.” Mr. Marchuk admitted that the absence of demarcation of the Ukrainian border causes problems in combating illegal migration. He also noted that terrorists do not steal across the border at night, cutting their way through coils of barbed wire. They enter foreign territories with legal IDs and often with diplomatic passports. The only way to counteract them is by coordinating the efforts of special services.
Russian National Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo said the issue of borders took almost half the time during the talks in Kharkiv, and that “the parties do not show similar approaches in all parameters,” so they agreed to continue a detailed discussion using teams of experts. Mr. Rushailo stressed that well-protected borders should help rather than impede cooperation.
Simultaneously, the similarity of challenges and problems is not likely to result in the emergence of any international center to combat terrorism, with a single database and uniform operating methods. Mr. Marchuk believes that the special services will never share a database, for the specifics of clandestine operations preclude it. Indeed, he said, they had an idea of a single international structure, yet discussing it showed that the principle of bilateral relations of special services in different countries still applies. Such cooperation will develop in exchanging information, forecasts, and organizing meetings of experts. “We are a professional team of exerts,” said Marek Siewec. As for coordinating such work with phone calls, he pointed out that “everything depends on who calls who and when. Sometimes a timely call can solve many problems.”
The next meeting of national security secretaries is expected in Belarus, as proposed by Gennady Neviglas.
Journalists also wanted to hear Yevhen Marchuk’s comment on the attempt to discredit him in the Balkan arms scandal. “I have a full picture showing who engineered the provocation when I was accused of dealing in arms,” said the NSDC secretary. He did not mention any names but said that the operation involved “not only Streshynsky and his lawyer but also more than one person on our side, and others.” He further stated that criminal proceedings had begun and answers would be found to the question who had carried out the operation and why. The criminal investigation made it clear who had assisted Streshynsky in hiding from Interpol for so many years, reports www.ukraina.ru. The NSDC secretary stressed that the accusations were an attempt to discredit not only him personally, but also Ukraine as a whole. He added that the SBU, headed by him at the time, exposed Streshynsky and cooperated with NATO intelligence in seizing a ship carrying arms to Yugoslavia. Mr. Marchuk believes the provocation against him was staged by professionals and that there was nothing coincidental about choosing Italy as the site, because its jurisprudence does not recognize the presumption of innocence.
